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Monday, October 15, 2007

Canadian post office upset by Sex Party.

A small political party in Canada is suing the government because the state-owned postal monopoly refused to distribute information on the party. Called the Sex Party the party advocates relaxation of laws on sexuality.

The government said that the brochure of the party included the word “penis” which is offensive, had a photo of penis sculpture and and a painting which SUGGESTED that the people might be having sex. Suggested?

The flyer was an attempt to recruit members and the party did run three candidates. But the post office would not deliver the pamphlet. They say they are obligated to protect people from anything they might find offensive. But they did deliver an anti-gay brochure by a Christian group that was very aggressive in its tone and dislike of gay people.

The head of the post office said they delivered the anti-gay brochure, which she said was vile, because they aren’t in the business of censoring the mail. But when it came to the Sex Party they were in the business of censoring the mail. And since the post office is a legal monopoly the ability to send one’s message another way is very limited indeed.

So individuals offended by sex are protect. Individuals offended by anti-gay hate mail are not protected.

This very idea that one should be protect from offense is absurd. Applied consistently it would ban all speech and activity as one is likely to be able to find some moron offended by something no matter what it is.

An inconsistent application of this principle would give some groups superior rights to others. In this case sexaphobic people have superior rights to everyone else. Individuals who might be interested in this party are not allowed to receive the brochure because other people are offended by it. There can be no such right as the right to be unoffended. If you are living then you will be offended at some point in time. If you are a particularly fragile person psychologically you may be offended most of the time. Sorry, but get used to it.

Photos: The illustrations in question posted here are the brochure that the Canadian post office worried some people would find offensive. If you are one of those people --- tough. If you want to enlarge it (oh, boy do the puns flow here) please just click on the image. If you are from the Canadian post office, bend over, locate anal cavity, insert head. Oh, never mind, that would be redundant.